Northumbria University, Newcastle, has been chosen by the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) - hosted at the UK’s innovation agency for social good NESTA - to join its University-Industry Impact Accelerator Programme aimed at experimenting to advance university-industry collaboration and knowledge exchange.
A collaboration between three Small Business Charter accredited business schools, namely Manchester Metropolitan, Ulster University, and Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School, will work with the Innovation Growth Lab to plan and design a Proof-of-Concept programme to enhance Knowledge Exchange (KE) activity between universities and businesses.
The initiative seeks to harness the increasing interest among academics to participate in KE training, aiming to cultivate greater science commercialisation and university-industry collaboration.
The Innovator Growth Lab is developing programmes that effectively harness knowledge, intellectual property, and resources, while bridging the gap between diverse incentives, cultures, and abilities. It has now chosen to work with Northumbria, Manchester Metropolitan and Ulster universities on policy design, seeking to improve the impact of these programmes and to determine the most effective programmes for academics across the UK.
Dr Matt Sutherland, Associate Professor in Marketing at Northumbria, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to be selected by the Innovation Growth Lab and to be working collaboratively with colleagues in Manchester and Ulster. Northumbria is known for its knowledge exchange and professional development activity with businesses, especially SMEs, so the Accelerator programme is an initiative we are very much looking forward to being a part of. We understand just how important it is for programmes such as this to meet the needs of both businesses and university collaborators.”
Dr Sutherland will be working alongside Northumbria colleagues Dr Padmali Rodrigo and Dr Simon Lillystone, Professor Jennie Shorley at Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr Laura Bradley-McCauley at Ulster University and Knowledge Exchange consultant Gurmit Kler.
For more information on Newcastle Business School please visit www.northumbria.ac.uk